New Florida Lottery scratch-off game offers $200,000 a year for life

TALLAHASSEE — To pump up scratch-off ticket sales and keep interest high among players, the Florida Lottery introduced a game Tuesday called "Lucky $200,000 a Year for Life."

The $20-per-ticket game offers 10 prizes in which winners receive annual $200,000 payments for the rest of their lives. There are also 10 prizes with yearly payments of $50,000, as well as other smaller prizes. If the game proves popular, it could stay on the market longer and additional prizes would be added.

Overall odds of winning are 1 in 2.94. The odds of winning $200,000 for life are about 1 in 3 million.

"This is our biggest foray into the annuity-type scratch-off game," said Leo DiBenigno, secretary of the Lottery. "People just love that anticipation of not only winning, but literally having that guaranteed payment by the lottery for the rest of your life."

University of Illinois business professor John Kindt, a gambling critic, said the enticing jackpot is a standard lottery marketing tactic: "People lose interest unless the prizes keep getting bigger and bigger."